Beginners and Beyond

2018 Race 34 La Llorona 5k (Read 3 times)

scottydawg

Barking Mad To Run

posted: 5/7/2018 at 7:15 PM

INTRO

I am Scott aka Scottydog aka Scotty Dogg, runner since 1983, cancer survivor – caught very early, so I actually had a fairly easy time of it - , retired Air Force, employee of University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), friend of dogs, fun-runner, and all-around punster and goofball. In 2003 I had spinal arthritis flare up and ever since then I’ve done the run/walk method since it hurts my back too much now to run continuously with no walk breaks. I’m on what I call my “2F Plan” which stands for Fun and Finish. My only goals for a race these days are finish everything I start, have fun along the way, and finish standing up with no ambulance waiting for me. At events that I now do for fun I carry my camera, chase “Great Legs” to help motivate my slow old man self to keep moving forward, and take pictures before, during, and after the race. Sometimes I even get a nice post-race sweaty hug from one of the Great Legs ladies. I then do a pictorial race report of my events. I also carry dog biscuits with me to treat any dogs I may meet at a run – unless it’s a mean dog; then the biscuit goes in one direction and I go in another. Hence my nickname “Scottydog.”

And a big thanks to runningahead.com for allowing me a “home” for my many many MANY race reports and photos. Great site, free training log; calendars; running routes; maps; conversation forums for runners; and much more

I don’t have great camera skills and take photos with a camera that is like me - old fashioned, lol - so sorry if a photo appears a bit blurry, etc. However, they are free to save, share, etc. Also, i picked up my 'wrong' camera for this event, my older camera that I need to get rid of, so that contributed to some of the photos being blurry, sorry about that. Most of them came out okay.

My 34th race of 2018 was La Llorona 5-miler held on May 5 at 7 pm. This event is a run/walk with the ‘ghost-theme’ of local legend of the “Weeping Woman” - https://www.legendsofamerica.com/gh-lallorona/ . Event organized by local race management company iaap (iaapweb.com) who always do a great job with their events. There is a costume contest and several people do this one in costume. Event locale was McAllister Park, a local San Antonio park with paved and off-road trails. With a 7 pm start time it was a tad warm, in the upper 70s, but that was okay for me, that is usually the temp I run in after work anyway. The park is only a couple of miles from where I live so I got there fairly quickly, around 45 minutes before start time to get my packet and get in a few pre-start photos.

Various participants, volunteers, supporters, etc.

On The Course

Course stayed on the park’s paved roads and paved trails. The majority of the trails are well-shaded by the park trees so it actually felt cooler on those parts of the course. The warmest part of the course was right before we finished when we came off the trails and had to do a little out-and-back on one of the park’s paved roads and then head to the finish. By that time the sun was beginning to set so that helped a bit. I have not done a 5-mile race in quite a while and my legs were feeling my morning 5K. I just barely made the timing-mat finish under an hour – 59:49 chip time, 11 seconds to spare to an hour, which was the goal I had in mind, just finish under an hour. I ended up being 4th in my age group. Number 3 guy finished way ahead of me.

Hardest part of the course here - especially mentally, cuz you know you are already finished - out-and-back part where we had to go up this road to a turn-round point then come back down this road and head to the finish. I really hate out-and-back parts or races right near the end of the race, lol.

around that curve up ahead was the turn-round point. Instead of turning around, I would have preferred just to go back through the trail in the woods, lol. Oh well, it is what it is.

I am now heading back to the finish. My friends Joe and Yeti the Wonder Dog are not far behind me, heading to the turn-round point.

Friend Alfredo almost to the turn-round point

After My Finish

After getting some water, doing a bit of a cool-down walk, and then sitting in the shade for a while, sipping my water, it was time to get some after-photos. Got a few people coming in after me too.

Blurry but still beautiful

Beer and the finisher medal

Beer and the finisher medal and a beautiful friend

Bernadette's 3rd race of the weekend and another first place in her age group

Epilogue

Really nice tech-tee race shirt, purple in color – that one’s a keeper, I don’t have too many purple tech tees - with an image of ‘weeping woman’ on the front. There were also some nice post-race goodies, Kiolbassa sausages, beer, etc. DJ – is that a term anymore? – playing music for us, costume contest post-race, and other stuff. The finisher medals were unique to the race too, an image of the Weepding Woman, very inventive. The course was well thought out for what the organizers had to work with in this park. This race used to be a 5K way back when – I remember doing the very first one that started at 9 pm. back then – and it was changed for whatever reason to a 5-miler. I’d like to see a 5K maybe added, so people have the option of 5k or 5 miler, and the organizers would probably get a bigger turn-out; but that could get expensive, probably, for the organizers, with extra medals and so forth, so I get it. What made this race was the people – the organizers and the participants, all along the course encouraging people on, chatting with each other, some nice camaraderie going out there; and, after the finish, very nice party, with lots of smiles and laughter among friends. I still prefer 5Ks, but this race was okay; I will probably do it again in the future and I certainly would recommend it to other runners.

Mucho thanks to all the people who got this one organized for we participants, including iaap, all the sponsors, all the volunteers, park police that were out there for us, our music guy, friend Paul B. of San Antonio Running Company for being our MC, and anyone else I may not have mentioned here. Thank all of you so much for doing what you do so we participants can do what we love to do.

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt